2023 Obafemi Awolowo prize for leadership award holds Wednesday

The 2023 award of the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership, an initiative of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, will be presented by Akinwumi Adesina, president, African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday.
The AfDB boss was selected following a rigorous selection process by a panel of eminent Nigerians, in December.
The presentation of the prize, which consists of a plaque, medal and certificate of award, will be made at a ceremony expected to draw a wide array of distinguished Nigerian and global exemplars.
Adesina would also deliver a lecture on the occasion. Special performances, musical celebration, goodwill messages, as well as video documentaries on Awolowo, Adesina and the Foundation, which was set up in 1992 to preserve Awo’s intellectual legacy, are decided features of the event.
“The documentary on Awolowo seeks to refresh the national memory concerning critical milestones in his political career with a view to teasing out, in a didactic fashion, edifying lessons for a generation groping for direction and leadership renewal.”
Special guests of honour include President Bola Tinubu, several visiting heads of state, former heads of state from within and outside Nigeria, state governors, royal fathers and other distinguished Nigerians.
The event will be chaired by Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Former head of state and Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, Yakubu Gowon, and Emeka Anyaoku, chairman of the Eminent Selection Committee, will be present on the occasion.
The idea of the leadership prize emanated from the special dialogue of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation in July 2011 with the theme: “Transformational Leadership and Good Governance: Lessons from the Awolowo Example.”